"Strong parent involvement is one factor the research has shown time and time again will have positive effects on academic achievement and school attitudes" (Ovando, Combs, Collier 386).
Four ways in which to communicate with parents: 1) Communicating regarding student progress o Cultural night o Parent/teacher conferences o Graphic organizer o Notes home (in parents language) o Phone call (translator) 2) Social participation at the school: o Cultural night o Invitation in native language (Translator website) o ESL night 3) At-home learning activities that support the school curriculum o Children's books in both home language and English o Manipulatives with picture directions 4) Parent participation in classroom activities o As bilingual tutor o As classroom volunteer o Send home kits for parent to put together
o Directions in home language or pictorial
Parent participation in classroom activities: It is important to show your parents they are welcome participants in the classroom. * Programs that successfully connect with families and community invite involvement, are welcoming, and address specific parental and community needs. * Parent involvement programs are effective in engaging diverse families recognize cultural and class differences, address needs, and build on strengths. * Effective connections embrace a philosophy of partnership where power is shared -- the responsibility for children's educational development is a collaborative enterprise among parents, school staff, and community members. (From Allen, 2007, p. 7)
Specific examples of how to include parents in classroom activities include:
1) Writing and Sharing A Cultural Memoir. Family stories are a wonderful way to bring home cultures to the center of the classroom curriculum. Ask parents to contribute to a weekly writing prompt such as: “When you were little” or “What is important to your family” Combine to create a Family Stories Book. 2) Encourage Hand-Off Chats. Simply talk to the adult who drops off or picks up your student. Make sure to set aside a time when conversation between parent and teacher are encouraged. 3) Have parents present “Story Time” in their first language. Parents can bring their favorite book in L1 or tell an oral story to the class. This is a wonderful “Cultural Shock” for native speaking classmates, who get to hear a lesson in a language they do not understand, building empathy with what EL students hear every day! “Parents always working with support staff to prepare for the storybook readings; together they previewed the book, practiced reading it aloud, and discussed and practiced read-aloud strategies” (Allen, 2007, p. 97). These are strategies the parent can take home again for successful reading comprehension with children! 4) “Utilize Family Funds of Knowledge” At the beginning of the school year survey student families of areas of expertise, using both their perceived area of expertise, and the year’s Course of Study to find a range of experts to make connections between the community and the classroom academic/language goals. Work around community members’ schedules with the goal of having each student’s community in the classroom as an educator at least once a semester. This creates ownership of instruction and personal connections between students, the community, and the classroom. 5) Create Parent Clubs: Writing groups that meet and share stories. Photography groups. Groups to help around School. Groups to help with Homework. Groups to answer questions bout the community. Any group needed or motivational to your parents!
The benefits of including parents in instruction. From Allen (2007) pg. 47
It may be helpful to consider our key findings from the work of Gonzales et al. (2005) that are important as we think abut forming relationships with families that support children’s learning. 1. All families have important experiences, skills, and bodies of knowledge – “funds of knowledge.” These funds are essential to the ways the families function in the home as well as in work and community settings. They are also resources for their children that the children can tap into.
2. Families use these funds of knowledge through social networks and relationships. Networks of family and friends were “flexible, adaptive, and active.” And included multiple people outside the home. This told them that their students often had many “teachers” who knew them well in multiple contexts. (These networks can also be used in the classroom to create a relationship between home and school!)
3. Teachers learn about how children learn. In most of the Mexican and Yaqui families, children were active participants and asked questions that guided their own learning (in contrast to Yup’ik children, who primarily observe, often silently, until they are ready to try the skill themselves, and to many European American middle class children who learn primarily from verbal instruction).
4. Confianza – mutual trust—is essential in establishing a relationship between educators and family members. Participation between teachers and parents/caregivers not only to learn about one another but also to trust one another—that each adult was working in the child’s best interest. Creating reciprocity (a healthy interdependence) is critical for the relationships to be enduring; in other words, although roles may not be the same, both teachers and parents give in ways that support one another an that support the child.
Note, Allen is referring to home visits in this section. However, we believe the same principles exist in the importance between home/school relationships and interactions.
Allen, J. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: a practical guide to home-school partnerships with diverse families//. Newark, DE: Teachers College Pr.
At-home learning activities • Read to child in first language and discuss concepts & values in first language • Develop a "Newsbook" letter writing activity. Each Friday, the teacher writes a letter about the week's learning activities and the child writes a letter or draws a picture about what he or she learned. It is placed in a three-ring notebook and the child takes it home, talks to the parent about the letters, and the parent writes a letter back to the child to take to school and share. If the parent does not speak English, the child can write his letter in the first language to share with his or her parent.
Other ideas for increasing reading at home in L1 families include:
Allow parents who do not speak English to use their first languague. Accoringto Cummins' Transfer Hypothesis states students who develop literacy in the first language are able to transfer these abilities to a second language. Reading at home in the first languae will develop reading comprehension skills, fluency,
Storytelling
Stories they have heard
Stories about family members
Use picture books
Tell stories using the pictures
Share rhymes
Sing songs
Go to the library
Talk
Watch educational TV or movies
Closed caption
Parents who speak other languages
Read books in familiar language
Parents who speak English
Read multicultural books
For more information see:
Resources for communicating with parents in their native language:
Find free school tip sheets you can provide for parents of students in grades 5K, 1, 2 & 3 available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hatian Creole, Hmong, Korean, Navaho, Russian, Tagalog, & Vietnamese at http://www.colorincolorado.org/guides/readingtips/#preschool
Google Translate:http://translate.google.com/ (Free!) translates websites, documents, pretty much anything into a multitude of languages! Includes a "Listen" and "Read Phonetically" button to help with parent teacher conferences! Warning, be sure you cross translate (Translate the new phrase BACK into your original language) If your message translates from L1 to L2 an then back to L1 again and is still what you intended to say it is a correct translation. Mistranslations do occur.
Sources for this section:
Allen, J. (2007). Creating Welcoming Schools. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. Otto, B. (2006). Language development in early childhood. Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hall™.
Communicate with Parents
"Strong parent involvement is one factor the research has shown time and time again will have positive effects on academic achievement and school attitudes" (Ovando, Combs, Collier 386).
Four ways in which to communicate with parents:
1) Communicating regarding student progress
o Cultural night
o Parent/teacher conferences
o Graphic organizer
o Notes home (in parents language)
o Phone call (translator)
2) Social participation at the school:
o Cultural night
o Invitation in native language (Translator website)
o ESL night
3) At-home learning activities that support the school curriculum
o Children's books in both home language and English
o Manipulatives with picture directions
4) Parent participation in classroom activities
o As bilingual tutor
o As classroom volunteer
o Send home kits for parent to put together
o Directions in home language or pictorial
Parent participation in classroom activities:
It is important to show your parents they are welcome participants in the classroom.
* Programs that successfully connect with families and community invite involvement, are welcoming, and address specific parental and community needs.
* Parent involvement programs are effective in engaging diverse families recognize cultural and class differences, address needs, and build on strengths.
* Effective connections embrace a philosophy of partnership where power is shared -- the responsibility for children's educational development is a collaborative enterprise among parents, school staff, and community members.
(From Allen, 2007, p. 7)
Specific examples of how to include parents in classroom activities include:
1) Writing and Sharing A Cultural Memoir. Family stories are a wonderful way to bring home cultures to the center of the classroom curriculum. Ask parents to contribute to a weekly writing prompt such as: “When you were little” or “What is important to your family” Combine to create a Family Stories Book.
2) Encourage Hand-Off Chats. Simply talk to the adult who drops off or picks up your student. Make sure to set aside a time when conversation between parent and teacher are encouraged.
3) Have parents present “Story Time” in their first language. Parents can bring their favorite book in L1 or tell an oral story to the class. This is a wonderful “Cultural Shock” for native speaking classmates, who get to hear a lesson in a language they do not understand, building empathy with what EL students hear every day! “Parents always working with support staff to prepare for the storybook readings; together they previewed the book, practiced reading it aloud, and discussed and practiced read-aloud strategies” (Allen, 2007, p. 97). These are strategies the parent can take home again for successful reading comprehension with children!
4) “Utilize Family Funds of Knowledge” At the beginning of the school year survey student families of areas of expertise, using both their perceived area of expertise, and the year’s Course of Study to find a range of experts to make connections between the community and the classroom academic/language goals. Work around community members’ schedules with the goal of having each student’s community in the classroom as an educator at least once a semester. This creates ownership of instruction and personal connections between students, the community, and the classroom.
5) Create Parent Clubs: Writing groups that meet and share stories. Photography groups. Groups to help around School. Groups to help with Homework. Groups to answer questions bout the community. Any group needed or motivational to your parents!
The benefits of including parents in instruction.
From Allen (2007) pg. 47
It may be helpful to consider our key findings from the work of Gonzales et al. (2005) that are important as we think abut forming relationships with families that support children’s learning.
1. All families have important experiences, skills, and bodies of knowledge – “funds of knowledge.” These funds are essential to the ways the families function in the home as well as in work and community settings. They are also resources for their children that the children can tap into.
2. Families use these funds of knowledge through social networks and relationships. Networks of family and friends were “flexible, adaptive, and active.” And included multiple people outside the home. This told them that their students often had many “teachers” who knew them well in multiple contexts. (These networks can also be used in the classroom to create a relationship between home and school!)
3. Teachers learn about how children learn. In most of the
Mexican and Yaqui families, children were active participants and asked questions that guided their own learning (in contrast to Yup’ik children, who primarily observe, often silently, until they are ready to try the skill themselves, and to many European American middle class children who learn primarily from verbal instruction).
4. Confianza – mutual trust—is essential in establishing a relationship between educators and family members. Participation between teachers and parents/caregivers not only to learn about one another but also to trust one another—that each adult was working in the child’s best interest. Creating reciprocity (a healthy interdependence) is critical for the relationships to be enduring; in other words, although roles may not be the same, both teachers and parents give in ways that support one another an that support the child.
Note, Allen is referring to home visits in this section. However, we believe the same principles exist in the importance between home/school relationships and interactions.
Allen, J. (2007). Creating welcoming schools: a practical guide to home-school
partnerships with diverse families//. Newark, DE: Teachers College Pr.
At-home learning activities
• Read to child in first language and discuss concepts & values in first language
• Develop a "Newsbook" letter writing activity. Each Friday, the teacher writes a letter about the week's learning activities and the child writes a letter or draws a picture about what he or she learned. It is placed in a three-ring notebook and the child takes it home, talks to the parent about the letters, and the parent writes a letter back to the child to take to school and share. If the parent does not speak English, the child can write his letter in the first language to share with his or her parent.
Other ideas for increasing reading at home in L1 families include:
- Allow parents who do not speak English to use their first languague. Accoringto Cummins' Transfer Hypothesis states students who develop literacy in the first language are able to transfer these abilities to a second language. Reading at home in the first languae will develop reading comprehension skills, fluency,
- Storytelling
- Stories they have heard
- Stories about family members
- Use picture books
- Tell stories using the pictures
- Share rhymes
- Sing songs
- Go to the library
- Talk
- Watch educational TV or movies
- Closed caption
- Parents who speak other languages
- Read books in familiar language
- Parents who speak English
- Read multicultural books
- For more information see:
Resources for communicating with parents in their native language:- Find free school tip sheets you can provide for parents of students in grades 5K, 1, 2 & 3 available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hatian Creole, Hmong, Korean, Navaho, Russian, Tagalog, & Vietnamese at http://www.colorincolorado.org/guides/readingtips/#preschool
• Translate documents (fee based site:) http://www.transact.com/Sources for this section:
Allen, J. (2007). Creating Welcoming Schools. Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY.
Otto, B. (2006). Language development in early childhood. Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hall™.